The Sharp Empire (first book)
This is the first book of the Sharp Empire series. Introduction and Prologue The introduction of this book explains Emperor Sharp's origin as a cobra becoming a hybrid creature with that of a lizard. It explains the creation of the Sharp Empire and that the emperor and the followers under his command are immortal and impervious to danger and death. And it explains the beginning of the Heaven Federation's warfare and their supply in space for needs and safety, similar to the working habits of astronauts in space (like the NASA). The prologue introduces the star system where the Death Scale was built. The star had died and the planets still remained. The planets follow the Death Scale wherever it is programmed to navigate and whenever to leave with a special electronic system inside it. The Heaven Federation hired a team of freedom fighters: a lioness named Nala Boomer, an orangutan named Skinamarinky-Dinky-Dink Skinamarinky-Doo (better known as Skinamar), and a wasp named Zinger Warsp. They were sent to investigate the Death Scale and fight against the Serpential forces. They met a dragon named Dermazzo Joustiáño, who taught Nala Boomer the ways of combat against the empire. But to prove unwelcomeness to the Death Scale for Boomer, Joustiáño betrayed her and became a count under the Sharp Empire's will. Boomer was bound and gagged by the Serpential forces and hanged with a noose machine "The Spruce Noose". Skinamar and Zinger escaped from the Death Scale and rejoined the federation to explain Boomer's fate. Several years passed as Emperor Sharp had created new plans for galactic conquest. Plot Synopsis The story begins with the starship of Princess Mariana Izodorro flying with Heavenly Federal spies stealing the Sharp Empire's plans. But the Serpential forces manage to stop them by firing laser cannons back and forth. A scale cruiser hovers above the starship and the spies ready their firearms as Darth Waternoose and some scale troopers crash through the door. Troopers and spies fired their blasters back and forth and many spies died. Meanwhile, Princess Mariana records a message for Skinamar and the Invisi-Bot to take to Earth. These two characters escape inside a pod flying from the ship to Earth. Inside the starship, Darth Waternoose interrogates about the plans and throws the spies aside. He commands the troopers to search everywhere for the plans. They take the princess prisoner and have her confronting Darth Waternoose. He accuses her as a traitor to the cause of the empire's will. The troopers arrest her afterward. Waternoose speaks with the cassowary officers, Governor Kalvino and Commander Karbono Kassow about the Serpential monitor system's voice lying about the plans' location. Waternoose announced that the princess is the one to tell the Serpentials where the Heaven Federation's hidden base is located. On Earth, Skinamar and the Invisibot land in Ireland in search of help. They get captured by leprechauns and put aboard their traveling machine and later they run a flea market for rather fair prices of gold coins to buy their lost and found mechanical parts and creatures. Skinamar and the Invisi-Bot are bought by a human farmer named Rowan Izodorro. He and his nephew, Martino (a so-called prince of Ireland exiled to live with his aunt and uncle on their farm) bring the two heroes to their house. Skinamar and the Invisi-Bot watch television for a while and later they give Martino a metal plate with a recorded holographic message from Martino's sister, the princess. Martino, while having dinner with his aunt and uncle, had strange thoughts on his mind about what was going on in space, the war of the Heaven Federation against the Sharp Empire. A while later, Skinamar mysteriously vanishes and the next morning, Martino and the Invisi-Bot search out in the wild to find him. As they do, leprechauns attack the heroes and later, a buzzing sound occurs. Zinger Warsp emerges out of nowhere. The leprechauns run away. The aging wasp, Zinger, approaches Martino, who was shot in the head with a stone from a slingshot. Martino awakes and finds the giant wasp. They talk about the story of Nala Boomer, who was with Skinamar, the Invisi-Bot, and Zinger. The freedom fighters are reunited, plus recruited with a new human member of the team (Martino). Zinger leads the three heroes to his home dome in the sky. He gives them gifts, weapons for fighting the Serpential forces. Martino receives a pair of disk launching firearms. Skinamar receives a phaser weapon whose beam imitates a solar ray that can burn down or melt matter in its path. The Invisi-Bot recieves a cubic circuit for making himself untouchable like a hologram when he turns invisible. Martino and Skinamar try out their new weapons and then Martino talks to Zinger about his sister. He shows him the plate of the recorded message from the princess. They play the whole message. Martino asks how his parents died and Zinger answers that Emperor Sharp had killed them in war against them. Meanwhile, on the Death Scale in the city Serpentopolis, Serpential Regional Governor Kalvino Kassow, creates new plans of destruction against the Heaven Federation in a council meeting room with other Serpential officers. Darth Waternoose claims that the stolen plans would return to them. Back on Earth and in Ireland, the four heroes find a terrain of destruction that had happened lately involving the Sharp Empire's scale troopers. They find dead leprechauns and their broken down transport vehicle. Martino goes back to his aunt's and uncle's farm only to find their skeletons, realizing that they had faced their deaths. Meanwhile, in Serpentopolis on the Death Scale, Emperor Sharp contacts Darth Waternoose announcing that he had planned to execute the princess if she refuses to tell the location of the Heavenly Federal base. Waternoose leads some scale troopers to the detention hall and enter the princess's cell. Waternoose starts to interrogate with her with a psycholo-droid that floated with an unidentified serum to torture her. Back in Ireland, Martino returns to his friends and Zinger tells that he could have been killed out in the open lands. Skinamar builds a new motorized transport vehicle and the heroes ride in it. Zinger says that there is a space shuttle launchpad under water by Cork Harbor. They race down south by the harbor but they are confronted by scale troopers who are required to see Martino's identification. Zinger uses the Force (mentioned in the Star Wars universe) to tell the troopers that they did not need to see any identification and the heroes are not what they have been looking for. The heroes are free to go under water. Their vehicle has a glass cover for the trip. They discover an airtight tunnel that led to a pool where they exit their vehicle. Inside the launchpad, air pressure filled the room and the heroes walk up through a stairway and into a space shuttle where they are about to be launched into space. As they all buckle in, the countdown starts and ends to allow the shuttle to launch out of the water and into space. On the way up, the shuttle wrecks a sea ship of leprechauns who bailed into the water. And so the four heroes fly into space and enter a station. In this station Martino discovers the place filled with anthropomorphic animals. Zinger enters a gift shop to buy weapons and instruments for the newly recruited freedom fighters. Later in the station's restaurant, Martino plays a shooting game with a wolverine and then Skinamar finds Martino and leads him to a table where they meet the new freedom fighters: Captain Tiblo Tigro, a tiger who is professionally trained to lead the team; Shana Cargon, a kangaroo who happens to be the technical brains behind the team; and Manda Monka, an alien wolf from another planet skilled as a sword fighter. Martino tells Zinger that he had to use a restroom. Zinger leads him to the restroom whose stalls have automatic metal doors similar to those of an elevator. The bathroom problems can be solved by wearing certain garments to collect excrements: foamy under trunk garments with a tube collecting urine in a tank for males, and extra-absorbent diapers for females. After Martino returns the freedom fighters receive their new gifts, new weapons and musical instruments for assist: Tiblo gets a tiger horn, Manda has a harp, and Shana has a flute. An emergency alarm breaks out loud in the station. Tiblo leads Martino to the station's basement of pipes with power and sewage with teleportation on his wrist communicator. A monstrous beast named Rufus had broken out of prison. He runs around the basement on top of the power pipes. Tiblo and Martino are to use their firearm weapons to lead the beast into a trap. TIblo contacts the security team to bring a net which is lowered down to the basment's floor. The beast tries to jump over a sewage drain but Tiblo stops him and the beast is caught in the net being brought back up to the security room. Tiblo and Martino teleport back up to the restaurant and find the security room where Heavenly Federal officers failed to keep the beast under control. Tiblo talks to the beast about home and his temper. The beast gives his name, Rufus, to the freedom fighters. Rufus transforms into his alter ego, a blonde haired man named Regulto Beauxon, a British-French medical scientist and the last recruit for the freedom fighters' team. After the team is assembled, they test their new weapons on flat targets in a shooting gallery targets that look like Serpential pirate knights, troopers, and monsters. Tiblo uses a pair of dual blasters, Manda has a hyper-shooting crossbow, Shana has a pair of hair dryer-shaped boomerang launchers, and Regulto has a cannon-like bazooka. After the shooting round, Tiblo introduces the Great Red Shark spaceship to Martino and his friends. They board the ship and Zinger senses the Serpential forces moving the Death Scale toward Neverland. The Great Red Shark uses hyper drive to fly into space. And so, the Death Scale is moved through space toward the imaginary star world of Neverland. It was being used as a test target for the biosphere's weapon system. Darth Waternoose and some scale troopers bring Princess Mariana before Governor Kassow and he explains her reluctance to tell the location of the Heavenly Federal base. For that reason, the emperor ordered the Serpentials to destroy Neverland with the Death Scale's weapon system. The princess exclaims a "no" explaining children's dreams of Neverland. The governor explains that the Serpentials have no choice but to obey the emperor's command. He asks harshly where the Heavenly Federal base is and finally the princess makes and answer with the Land of Oz. Then suddenly, Neverland was in the direct firing range and the Serpentials activate the firing system. The city of Serpentopolis is shaped like a cross and at each end is a spire that fires a laser toward the mechanical serpent's eye on top of the Palace of Sharp (where the emperor sits on his throne). The eye absorbs the four laser beams and fires and giant beam at Neverland to destroy it entirely. Darth Waternoose tells the princess to think of whose side she is on. And then, some officers punish her about the answering gig. A bionic eyed bird of prey named Sergeant Hawkeye, flies overhead with his feet around the princess's neck (almost choking for if any prisoner took too long to answer) and Governor Kassow hits her on the head with the ball top of his walking stick (for if any prisoner made up a lie). The princess is later taken back to her detention cell. On the Great Red Shark, Martino trains more for combat by hitting pillars with a stick and Shana trains with throwing spears at a target. Zinger had them do their training with a blind clip (a metal version of a blindfold). Tiblo still flew the ship in hyper drive. Skinamar and the Invisi-Bot play a monster game that looked like chess. Zinger warns that fighting a monster is a dangerous task. Chapter 15 of the book introduces the first sixteen henchmonsters: Lava Lobster, Monstrous Slug, Junky the Bulldog, Long-Tailed Skeleton, Clown Coach, Three Heads, Scorpionyx, Grop, the Jamba Juice Glob, Sparxcalibur, Mega Hawk, Tri-Psy-P.O., Plag, Brocker, Ice Brain, and Stargoyle. Emperor Sharp speaks to his monsters in holograms of their communication. They say that they shall do their best to defend the Death Scale. Later, the Serpential force general, Karchong Fang, a large monáchi pirate knight with four arms, speaks to the emperor saying that the speaking monitor system has been repaired to search for the hidden Heavenly Federal base. The Serpentials look into the hidden Land of Oz. The monitor says that there was no hidden enemy base. Governor Kassow comes to his sense that the princess had lied to them. Darth Waternoose had known that she would never betray her Heavenly Federal allies. And so the princess's execution is planned. The freedom fighters fly the Great Red Shark into where Neverland used to be and they discover that it had been destroyed by the Sharp Empire. Later they discover the Death Scale ahead. They are forced to move toward it without any ability to turn back. They enter the south building of Serpentopolis and land the ship in the hangar bay. Scale troopers surround the ship and patrol into it. The heroes hide from them. Meanwhile, Serpential guards take the princess from her detention cell, binding and gagging her. They take her to the emperor's throne room. Back in the hangar, Martino and Tiblo taunt some scale troopers and steal their suits to disguise themselves as they lead the other freedom fighters to a security room abandoned by an officer who left to get help. The freedom fighters enter to room to form a plan. Zinger leaves the room and heads for the city's depths to turn down the Death Scale's weapon system's power. The Invisi-Bot instructs Martino about the Death Scale and its ability of destruction, plus its ability to leave to another location in space with a control device. Martino remembers about his sister, the princess, and the Invisi-Bot tells him about her execution that current day. Martino forms a plan with the scale trooper disguise by having Tiblo bind Regulto's wrists. Regulto was frightened about a betrayal scam, Rufus the beast, in reflection, advises him to trust his allies. Martino and Tiblo pretend to be troopers arresting Regulto as they sneak to the detention hall; Tiblo tells the rest of the team to hide in a nearby closet if anyone comes by the security room. As Tiblo and Martino ride an elevator to the detention hall, the princess is brought before the emperor about to face her execution. Governor Kassow hits her on the head with the top of his walking stick again. Suddenly, a small rolling droid known as a communica-droid, displays Tiblo and Martino in disguise, which it scanned, to the emperor. The emperor says they are too late. He calls an airship and he leads the Serpential officers and pirate knights with the princess aboard. Tiblo, Martino, and Regulto reach the detention level, and a pair of lizards asks where Tiblo and Martino are taking Regulto. Tiblo talks about any available cell and one lizard says that the emperor did not call for one. Regulto breaks free from his binders and Tiblo and Martino attack the lizards with blasters. Tiblo removes his helmet to show them who he really is and the lizards escape aboard the elevator. A communication beeps on the nearby dashboard and Tiblo answers the call as Martino scouts ahead to the hallway. The voice on the communication asks who was talking and Tiblo shoots the system. An alarm rings about the enemy to be eliminated. Martino searches the cells and realizes that his sister was in none of them. Meanwhile back in the security room, Manda Monka changes her diaper in a closet as the others hear about some troopers finding them in the room. Manda slides inside the garbage chute to hide from the troopers. Meanwhile, in the detention hall, scale troopers patrol the place firing guns at Tiblo and Martino. Martino contacts the Invisi-Bot and the Invisi-Bot tells that it is too late to save the princess. Tiblo, Martino and Regulto jump into the garbage chute nearby. Inside the disposal, the three heroes were joined with Manda who hid from the scale troopers near the security room. Regulto finds the exit door. Suddenly, the heroes are attacked by a snake-like monster that dwells in the garbage room. Tiblo traps it in a hole by dodging the monster's attack. Then the ceiling starts slowly moving down on the heroes. Martino finds a bomb in his scale trooper disguise suit's backpack. He uses the bomb to blow out the exit door and the heroes are free to rejoin their friends. In the hangar bay the Great Red Shark is gone. Meanwhile, below the Palace of Sharp, Zinger finds the controls of the Death Scale's weapon system. He turns a crank to turn down the frequency volume to the laser power. Later, the freedom fighters are reunited at the hangar bay. They find a recorded message plate that showed the princess's execution in the lake. On the airship, Darth Waternoose had contacted the twin vulture viceroys, Hooker and Blunt Volton, to have the intruders exterminated. General Fang had swung his fist to knock the princess in the lake. She is weighed down with a steel ball like an anchor. The princess meets her doom by drowning. Robots under the lake use a freezing substance to trap the princess in an ice crystal. The robots bring her up to the sky as a satellite. The emperor uses his cape spread like a pair of bat wings to soar up and use his electrical finger power to support the robots with an electrical net to hold the frozen princess. In the hangar, Martino felt ashamed that he could not save his sister from this fate. Meanwhile, Zinger returns with a rubber cord with a hook to carry everyone out of the hangar and into the wilds of the Death Scale. The freedom fighters end up in the Therapsid Jungle located in the middle of the Death Scale's land surface. For the first time, they fight against the emperor's henchmonsters: Lava Lobster, Monstrous Slug, Junky the Bulldog, Long-Tailed Skeleton, Clown Coach, and Three Heads. After an epic battle, the heroes search for the Great Red Shark and cross a river of nitrogen. Skinamar stretches his arms to a rubber plant across the river. Then he uses a control system to warp the plant to the other side of the river for the rest of the heroes to fling themselves across. Later, more henchmonsters arrive to fight the heroes: Scorpionyx, Grop, the Jamba Juice Glob, Sparxcalibur, Mega Hawk, and Brocker. They utilize their powers against the freedom fighters until suddenly, Artidector arrives to help the heroes. He gives them new powers to overcome evil. Later, Martino feels guilty for letting his sister die. Artidector plans to bring her back to life. He explains that his powers of revival are not legal for the matter of time. His plan requires his six children to free the princess from her dead frozen prison. Meanwhile, Zinger brings the Invisi-Bot to the heroes from being left behind, and Tiblo says that he and the others had found the Great Red Shark. Artidector had it protected. The freedom fighters are cleaning the ship and suddenly, they become attacked by pirate knights. The female freedom fighters play their instruments to call for help. Martino and Tiblo come to the rescue. They fight off the pirate knights and those knights retreat to report to their emperor. Later, Artidector shows the freedom fighters their new individual fighter ships: the Clover Bird for Martino, the Ape Smacker for Skinamar, the Tiger Shark for Tiblo, the Marine Wolf for Manda, the Wallaby Wing for Shana, and the Golden Triceros for Regulto. They fly these new ships to fight off more henchmonsters: Tri-Psy-P.O., Plag, Ice Brain, and Stargoyle. Later the ships are flown and landed in a new hangar bay installed for the Great Red Shark. The freedom fighters are back in that ship and they escape the Death Scale. Meanwhile, Emperor Sharp orders the pirate knights to attack the freedom fighters and not to let them escape. The knights fly their fighter ships up to the Death Scale's atmosphere and in space with the Great Red Shark. Tiblo and Martino shoot the enemy fighters down with machine guns on the ship's top and bottom. After that the heroes head for their hidden base in the Orion Nebula. And so, after the Serpential pirate knights' failure, Emperor Sharp decided that they all must try again. Then the Death Scale moves to the Orion Nebula and the monitor locates the Heaven Federation's hidden base in a horse head at the far left. Inside the base and in a strategy room, a grizzly bear named Gando Grizzle, who is the Heaven Federation's military general, shows a diagram of the Death Scale and its prime meridian on the inside. He shows that if any fighter ship were to destroy the Death Scale, he or she must fire an electron electron torpedo that should fly down through the Death Scale's north or south pole down into the core, which should destroy the biosphere. The federation forgives the freedom fighters for that they did not save the princess. Tiblo says that Artidector has it under control. The freedom fighters and the Heaven Federation's trained pilots enter the hangar bay and ready their ships for the great battle against the approaching Death Scale. Tiblo speaks shortly to a male feline pilot named Calico, to watch over his human friend (Martino). Later the pilots, fly their ships out into space and the general has a digital table map showing the Death Scale's reducing distance to the horse head of the Orion Nebula. The monitor system says that the Death Scale is approaching in 17 minutes. And so, in outer space, the pilots identify their ships by color (gold, silver, and bronze) and by number or saying "leader". They all fly to the Death Scale to patrol its sky and pirate knights fly their fighter ships for the great battle. Even the henchmonsters show up to defend the Death Scale. Many pilots get shot down while some try to reach one of the two poles to destroy the biosphere. Darth Waternoose and the Volton brothers fly their own ships (Flying Crab for Waternoose and the Duo of Volts for the Voltons) to defend the biosphere from being destroyed. As the Death Scale inches closer to the horse head base leaving the federation fewer minutes to live, the freedom fighters help the pilots destroy flying droids and monsters around the sky. Martino plans to destroy the biosphere by targeting the north pole. Artidector tells him to use the force. Martino turns off his ship's targeting computer. The Death Scale's approach is complete toward the Heavenly Federal base in range. Governor Kassow says that the Serpentials may fire when the weapon system is ready. Darth Waternoose tries to target the Clover Bird, Tilbo fires his ship's lasers at the Flying Crab and the Duo of Volts sending them flying away from the Death Scale. Martino finally gets his chance to launch his torpedoes into a hole of the biosphere's north pole by using the force. The heroes fly away back to the Heavenly Federal base. As the Serpentials start the Death Scale's firing system, Martino's torpedoes touch the core to make the biosphere explode. It breaks into four major pieces flying away from its current position. The weapon's laser beam shoots out of place into a far distance through space. As the freedom fighters along with the Heavenly Federal pilots fly back to the horse head base, Artidector's voice says "Remember, the force will be with you. Always." During the reunion in the base's hangar, Tiblo says Martino's name wrong (Martin Izodorf) saying that he was brave enough to use the force. Artidector arrives by coming through a hatch on the ceiling. He says that the freedom fighters are most intelligent in his philosophy, and that he had given Manda and Shana to the captain of the H.F. forces, and that he discovered Martino as the first human being within a dream of animals. He leaves the place to find his children through space. Later the freedom fighters sit in a lounge and Zinger tells the story about Nala Boomer and Count Joustiáño. Then he tells the story about Emperor Sharp creating plans to destroy children's philosophy with television, fairy tales by using the Death Scale to destroy any world of fantasy, which was how Neverland was destroyed. Later the freedom fighters go to lunch. Meanwhile, on the northwestern quarter of the Death Scale in the city of Serpentopolis, the Kassows report their first mistake to the emperor. The emperor announces that the Heaven Federation cannot last, but his empire can until its enemies' strength is sacrificed. Later Darth Waternoose and the twin vulture viceroys return. Emperor Sharp says that they shall crush the federation with an alliance. Darth Waternoose says that they will either abuse the force or die. And so, ending the story is with a ceremony. Medals made by Artidector are given to Martino and Tiblo for they were able to use teamwork to destroy the Death Scale in time. A vocal message from Artidector says that the galaxy will last and with the Sharp Empire's weakened plans they will still be their nemeses. The epilogue of the book explains that the freedom fighters will still overcome the Sharp Empire's schemes and the empire would still manipulate any youth's philosophy of dreams.